


on wikipedia pages and pranks

by TheMerlinCollective



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Arthur is the Prince of Wales, Based on a Tumblr Post, M/M, Merlin is a college student, so is gwaine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23966107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMerlinCollective/pseuds/TheMerlinCollective
Summary: The first time Merlin had misused his certified editor privileges on Wikipedia, he hadn't expected it to go anywhere. It'd just been a harmless prank. And then he did it again, and again, and again. Then somebody noticed.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 53
Kudos: 460





	on wikipedia pages and pranks

**Author's Note:**

> based on a thread(?) on tumblr by supercalvin and complexlysimplekiddo

When Merlin saw the newspaper in Gwaine’s hands, he swore quietly under his breath and grabbed it, skimming the headline to make sure he hadn’t misread it.  **_Prince Arthur of Wales’ Wikipedia Page Hacked,_ ** it proclaimed in large black letters spread across the front page.

Gwaine scowled, then realized who it was and grinned. “I don’t normally get the paper, but I had to as soon as I saw it.”

Merlin nodded absently, blood draining from his face, and pulled out his phone.

“It’s all over Twitter, too,” Gwaine said, grabbing the newspaper back from Merlin’s hand.

Surprisingly enough, Merlin had next to no notifications. There was one from his mum, telling him to have a great day, and one from Will that was just a devilish smiley face emoticon, but that was it. He opened Twitter, and scrolled through his TL, hoping that it had just been the one paper that had printed the story, but similar headlines leaped out at him through RTs.

“Hey, don’t you work for the princess on weekends?” Gwaine asked, much too loud for a classroom full of uni students.

“I—technically, I work for his father, but I’m only Gaius’ apprentice. Why?”

_ “Well,”  _ Gwaine said, “If you see him, you could call him all of the names that were uploaded onto his Wikipedia page.”

“I’m not trying to lose my job, Gwaine,” Merlin said. “Besides, it’s not like I ever see him, anyway.”

That part was a lie, of course. Merlin saw Arthur every weekend, at minimum, and tried to shoot a text in his direction at least once a day. Which was why he was surprised that he didn’t have any notifications other than the one from his mother and Will. Surely Arthur would have noticed by now, right? It was only 9 am, but Merlin was certain that Arthur was awake—he’d had a meeting with his father’s advisors that had started at 7, and it was unlikely to have lasted this long.

“I guess,” Gwaine replied, turning his direction away from Merlin, oblivious that his friend was the one who had started this whole  _ scandal  _ in the first place.

It had started as a joke, something that no more than one or two people were likely to see. A few weeks after his relationship with Arthur turned from something in between grudging acceptance and friendship to something in between friendship and something a little more, he’d decided to browse through Arthur’s Wikipedia page just to laugh at how boring it would be. And it was—boring, that it. He’d started editing the “aliases” section before he even knew what he was doing, and then Arthur’s page was a little less boring.

Then he added onto it every time Arthur was a prat—which was a lot. He mostly added onto the alias section, but also added things to the “personal life” area. Nothing too personal, of course, just small things like “constantly misplaces sword” or “likes to go out hunting even if he doesn’t end up catching animals”.

It was probably a bad idea to misuse his certified editor privileges, which he’d only gotten to edit the page on sorcery, but it’d been so  _ funny. _

The point was, it wasn’t supposed to  _ go anywhere.  _ Nobody was supposed to see it, but that was what tended to happen when something was posted to the internet without the intention of going viral. If you wanted to be internet famous, you’d go nowhere, and if you were just doing something personal, it’d blow up. He should have expected this, but he hadn’t realized that people would actually be  _ looking at _ Arthur’s Wikipedia page. He was a prat! Sure, he was a lot nicer once you actually got to know him, but Merlin had  _ hated _ him at first. Sure, he was attractive, but that meant very little when one was an asshole.

The fact that people actually looked at Arthur’s Wikipedia page for reasons other than  _ homework,  _ or something, was more surprising than the fact that news about Arthur had made front-page news.

And now there was an article about the “hacker”, and Merlin had no texts from Arthur, which meant that he either  _ didn’t know about it,  _ or he knew about it but didn’t know that  _ Merlin  _ was the one who had edited it. Honestly, he wasn’t sure which was worse. That did not, by  _ any  _ account, mean that Merlin was going to tell Arthur that he’d been the one to change it. He’d be caught  _ dead _ before telling Arthur, or, gods forbid, Arthur’s  _ father _ that he’d edited it.

Merlin slid into his seat, praying that the day would just  _ end  _ already.

  
  
  


When their class ended, Gwaine dragged Merlin to a new restaurant he’d found close to campus. Something about “the best fish and chips you’ll ever find, I’m sure there’s something vegetarian for you, too”.

Merlin had barely gotten to his seat when his phone went off,  _ finally,  _ and he wasn’t sure whether or not he was happy about it.

“Who’s Arthur?” Gwaine asked, glancing at Merlin’s phone before he picked it up and accepted the call, scowling at Gwaine.

_ “Mer _ lin, you haven’t texted me at all today.”

“I, er—what?”

“I was in that meeting with father for  _ ages, _ and by the time I got out there wasn’t even a good morning text from you.”

“Sorry, I—I had class—is something wrong?”

“I’m sure you’ve seen the news,” Arthur said, sighing. “It’s a part of the reason my meeting with Father was so long.”

Merlin winced. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Arthur said, “It’s not as if it’s  _ your fault _ or anything, yeah?”

Merlin hummed noncommittally.

“I should probably go soon, anyway. Father wants to find out who did it so he can punish them accordingly.”

“Punish them?” Merlin said. It was bad enough that Uther hated him because of his prejudice against magic-users—thank the gods that the government was a constitutional monarchy, not an actual monarchy—but if  _ this  _ was added on top of that?

“Of course,” Arthur said. “It’s slander against my good name.”

“‘Your good name’?” Merlin asked. “What good name—and besides, it’s just a tiny prank, I’m sure that isn’t necessary.”

“Of course it is,” Arthur replied, something akin to a laugh noticeable in his voice. “I’ll lose followers on Twitter if they think I go hunting  _ every day _ and still can’t manage to catch anything.”

“You’re kidding,” Merlin said, voice flat.

“Of  _ course  _ I’m kidding,  _ Mer _ lin.” Arthur laughed. “But it would have spared me a headache if you’d let me know you were doing that  _ before _ it made countrywide news.”

“I hate you,” Merlin said.

“No, you don’t.”

And, of course, Merlin didn’t have anything to say other than  _ “Clotpole.” _

“Uh? Merlin?” Gwaine asked, glancing between Merlin’s face and his phone. “... Is that, by chance, the Prince of Wales?”

“... Of course not. What makes you say that?”

“His name is Arthur,” Gwaine said, “and you called him ‘clotpole’.”

“... No, I didn’t. Anyway, Arthur, I have to go.” Merlin took his phone away from his ear and ended the call, then cleared his throat and focused on his food.

“Merlin,” Gwaine said, more serious than he’d ever been in front of Merlin, “did you go onto the  _ Prince of Wales’  _ Wikipedia page and alter it?”

“Of course not,” Merlin said. “Why would I ever do that? It’s not like I know him, and I’d rather not get into trouble and lose my job.”

Gwaine leveled him with a stare, then burst out laughing. “Of course you did. Why am I not surprised?”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! i hope you liked it :D  
> ~stella


End file.
